Breeding Roaches?

[Rukii]

I know this is an extremely vague question,and I apologize in advance, but from a scale 1-10 (10 being the hardest) How difficult is it to breed dubias? Factor in everything from cost to time to money and all.Thanks so much! I'd love to hear opinions.

 

[HKzForDayz]

id say 3 maybe. all it really requires is the initial set up, if you want a quick colony a little chunk of cash to buy the roaches, and basic husbandry( proper temps, food and water)

 

[simpleman]

i have been dealing with roaches for about 6mths. and finally i have an established breeding colony with about 75 adult females and 25 males... and i have harvested about 700 baby roaches in the last 4 weeks.... i have been buying roaches almost weekly which is th expensive way to do things...if i were to do it from scratch again i would save up about 150 dollars and buy 1000 mixed dubia, if you buy 1000, then you can feed some (only if absolutely necessary).. then i would buy 2 or 3 bins and the necessary food/ water crystals..... then as the adults mature, i would seperate them and then when they start producing, put the babies in a seperate bin... it takes a little bit of work but once it gets goin, its realliy easy....hope this helps...

 

[juniormmm]

It took me $150 and 1 month before I was able to have a colony able to withstand daily pickings for my baby beardie. Luckily I started my colony 1 month before I purchased my baby and have never had to buy live food for him yet. I would rate it a 2ish on the difficulty scale. 2x week you give food and water to the roaches. I don't know why some people prefer to separate the age brackets into separate bins. I use a 30g tote and have never found a need to keep multiple totes.

Make sure they have food/water, make sure their temperature is ~90 and make sure they have enough humidity (50% and up) so that they can molt properly. Those are the secretes to making a dubia colony work.

 

[Rukii]

Thanks so much everyone! Gives me a lot more confidence to start a colony!

 

[Reeferman20]

whats the best way to keep humidity up?

 

[BeardieGrandma]

I have been a bit passive in my approach to breed these things. When I got our beardie in September the breeder gave me two females and a male and suggested I try and breed them. After letting them sit in a plastic bin with no heat for 6 weeks, I turned a light on them and a month later (last weekend actually) we finally had some babies...LOL. So now I have about 25 little babies running around, and at this rate should have a full fledged colony sometime next year...

As far as humidity is concerned, I watched a youtube video where the guy had taken plastic tupperware, poked holes in the lid and the sides, and put wet paper towels inside. He then placed this under the heat light in the plastic bin and it served as a 'homemade' humidifier. I have done the same with my bin. Not sure it made a difference since I've been kind of half ass about the whole thing, but I thought it was a good idea to get some humidity in there.

 

[Sapphire]

whats the best way to keep humidity up?

Make sure there are always water crystals in the tub and make sure it is always heated. I also have a small plastic container full of water with holes poked in the lid, and I set that close to the heated side of the bin (the food and water are on the opposite side). Haven't seemed to have any issues yet, then again as winter approaches and it gets colder and less humid outside I might need to figure something else out.

 

[Livey]

I started breeding them a couple months back...
It give it a 2...
As everyone said, its the set up that can be costly...
but once your going all you need is a bit of time every week to sort them out ...

 

[ziggy23]

I'd give it a 1. The only costly thing for me was buying the roaches. I spent only about $95, and $90 of that was on the roaches themselves. Almost all the stuff needed I already had laying round.

All I do is peek in there everyday to check on food and water and they do the rest.

 

[Reeferman20]

whats the best way to keep humidity up?

Make sure there are always water crystals in the tub and make sure it is always heated. I also have a small plastic container full of water with holes poked in the lid, and I set that close to the heated side of the bin (the food and water are on the opposite side). Haven't seemed to have any issues yet, then again as winter approaches and it gets colder and less humid outside I might need to figure something else out.

How big hoies we talkin? Like pin holes?

 

[Sapphire]

whats the best way to keep humidity up?

Make sure there are always water crystals in the tub and make sure it is always heated. I also have a small plastic container full of water with holes poked in the lid, and I set that close to the heated side of the bin (the food and water are on the opposite side). Haven't seemed to have any issues yet, then again as winter approaches and it gets colder and less humid outside I might need to figure something else out.

How big hoies we talkin? Like pin holes?

That would work. I used a fork. Heated it up a bit with a flame and then just easily pushed it thru the plastic lid of the container a few times.

 

[YBS0502]

could you use a old superworm container? for the water container for humidity you get them at petsmart it has holes in the lid

 

[PetLover16]

could you use a old superworm container?

yes if it is big enough. like a tote size bin or storage bins that you can get at walmart for $5